As negotiations intensify at the ongoing COP30 in Belém, Brazil, frontline environmental groups are raising their voices, insisting that real climate action must go beyond slogans, pledges and cosmetic transitions.
At a press briefing on the sidelines of the conference, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, in collaboration with Oilwatch International, introduced a bold call to the global community: “Yasunise and Ogonise the World.”
They say this radical approach, inspired by resistance movements in Nigeria’s Ogoniland and Ecuador’s Yasuni region is the only genuine path to halting catastrophic climate change.
In Belém, Brazil, a city now hosting the 30th global climate negotiations, COP 30, activists from Africa, South America and Asia are pushing a message they insist the world can no longer ignore.
At this side event, jointly organized by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, and Oilwatch International, the campaigners are demanding what they call real solutions to the climate crisis not recycled promises or technical jargon.
Leading the charge is Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF).
For him, the real climate action is firmly rooted in the struggles of communities like Ogoni in Nigeria and Yasuni in Ecuador that have resisted fossil fuel exploitation for decades.
For many here, the message is that If Yasuni could do it…
If the Ogoni people could do it…
Then communities in Uganda, Namibia, Senegal, Brazil and indeed everywhere threatened by fossil extraction can demand the same.
Olamide Martins, Associate Director of Climate Change at the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), says true climate justice must include accountability for polluters and compensation for communities living with the consequences.
The conversation widened to Southeast Asia where environmental defenders face even harsher realities.
Cleng Julve, Secretary General of Advocates of Science and Technology for the People in the Philippines, described a region battered by rising seas, intensified typhoons, and an aggressive push for oil, gas and mineral extraction.
Across the panel, there was worry about the ever-growing list of confusing climate terms — net-zero, carbon neutrality, decarbonisation , words they argue distract from the real issue: stopping fossil fuels at the source.
The groups insist that the world must embrace clear and honest language and that terms like Yasunise and Ogonise offer a straightforward call to action-
keep fossil fuels in the ground, respect community struggles, and allow frontline people to define their own development path.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
